Position in chronology
HSS 10, 197
About this tablet
A grim piece of everyday accounting from Gasur (the later Nuzi, in northern Iraq) in the Old Akkadian period, around 2300 BCE. It lists six children — including nursing infants — each identified by their father's name, who are being handed over to a man named Huzuzi on account of a debt owed by (or to) Im-ama. Children pledged or surrendered against unpaid debts were a harsh reality of ancient credit, and tablets like this are among the earliest documentary evidence of the practice.
Plain-language summary by the engine — meant as a doorway into the literal translation below.
Written in modern English
This is a transfer list of six children. Two boys, sons of Bazizi; one boy named Zalili, son of Zalīlī, a male child of Zašši; two nursing infants, one the child of Šu-GAN-ri and one the child of Dirium; and one nursing infant of Tiru-šaqi. All of them are being handed over to Huzuzi to cover Im-ama's debt — in effect, human collateral against an unpaid loan.
A modern paraphrase of the literal translation — same content, contemporary voice.
Translation — our engine
Our engine1. 2 male children, 2. sons of Bazizi; 3. 1: Zalili, 4. son of Zalīlī, 5. a male child of Zašši; 6. 2 suckling children: 7. (one) a child of Šu-GAN-ri, 8. (one) a child of Dirium; 9. 1 suckling child of Tiru-šaqi — 10. for Im-ama's 11. de[bt], 12. to Huzuzi.
Our translation engine — Fable 5. Reads the photo, translates the cuneiform, and writes a plain-language interpretation. See methodology for limits.
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Transliteration
2(asz@c) _dumu-nita#_ _dumu_ ba-zi-zi 1(asz@c) za-li-li _dumu_ za-li2-li2 _dumu-nita_ za3-szi 2(disz) _dumu ga_ _dumu_ szu-GAN2-ri _dumu_ diri-um 1(disz) _dumu ga_ ti-ru-sza-qi2# a-na im-ama# hu-bu#-[lim] hu-zu-zi-isz
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (Old Akkadian (ca. 2340-2200 BC)) — HSS 10, 197. No scholarly translation has been published; the transliteration is from the ATF (CDLI's Atf-Friendly format).
Attribution
Image: Harvard Museum of the Ancient Near East, Harvard University, Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA (P213462) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative. source
Translation excerpted from engine:claude-fable-5 (2026-09-20/v8-evolved).
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